VN#017 - Job Title: Technical Support Staff under Special Service Agreement (SSA) to support implementation of International Health Regulations (IHR) and Point of Entry related activities (PoEs)

Background:
The WHO Viet Nam Country Office has provided support to strengthen the capacity of the General Department of Preventive Medicine (GDPM), Ministry of Health (MoH) for national emergency preparedness for and response to COVID-19 outbreak in Viet Nam in the past few years. Between September 2020 and September 2023, project personnel have been recruited to provide technical assistance to GDPM in various technical areas including Sentinel surveillance, Risk assessment (RA) & Emergency Operations Center (EOC); Communication and public health activities; International Health Regulations (IHR) and Point of Entry (PoE); and Laboratory (LAB). During this period, the engaged project personnel had worked very closely with GDPM staff at the respective departments where they were attached to and had contributed significantly to all the work related to COVID-19 surveillance, preparedness and response among other activities under the GDPM-WHO collaborative 2020-2021 and 2022-2023 workplans.
Since early 2022, Viet Nam has been making a transition from emergency response toward a long-term sustained management of COVID-19. In addition, from October 2023, as COVID-19 was officially reclassified from an infectious disease Group A to Group B according to the current Law on Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, lots of the working focus had been further shifted toward other infectious diseases of national importance, not excluding COVID-19. Accordingly, GDPM needs to continue working on the above-mentioned areas with some adjustments to effectively address the MOH’s priorities (i.e., development of Disease Prevention Law, establishment of National CDC, conducting second Joint external Evaluation - JEE, etc.), disease outbreaks and public health challenges including dengue, hand-foot-mouth disease, seasonal influenza, measles, diphtheria among other vaccine preventable diseases. Meanwhile, as the MOH-WHO four-year project document (PD) and the biennium workplan for 2024 – 2027 are expected to be approved in quarter 3/ 2024, there is a need for an extra support to GDPM to fulfil the activities committed in the workplan, even prior to the PD approval via different implementation modalities.
To maintain the human resource that is acutely required in the current context, the WHO Viet Nam country office is supporting GDPM to recruit the involved positions, among which are the SSA holder/ Technical Support Staff to support implementation of International Health Regulations (IHR) and Point of Entry related activities (PoEs).
 

Term of reference
The SSA holder will work under the direct supervision of the leader of Division of Communicable Disease Control, GDPM, Ministry of Health, and with a close collaboration and guidance from the Health Security Team at the WHO Viet Nam country office to support the following activities:
• Support preparing WHO EIS (event information site) website posting for disease outbreaks and/or public health events as required by IHR(2005).
• Support to conduct RA/ JRA for disease/ outbreak events as required and preparation of report
• Assist the Viet Nam IHR/NFP communication with WHO IHR focal point and with NFP focal points from other Member States when and as needed.
• Support organizing (1) a preparation meeting for the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) in Viet Nam, (2) a multisectoral self-evaluation using the JEE tool, and (3) an external evaluation to be run by an international mission of experts.
• Support the preparation of the annual IHR capacities self-assessment using the State Party Self-Assessment Annual Reporting (SPAR) Tool and the timely submission of the report to WHO.
• Provide support for obtaining the government’s approval to implement all other IHR and POE-related activities, including new DFC-related technical and financial processes based on the new PD.
• Carry out other duties as requested by supervisors.
 

Expected outcome(s)
Enhanced GDPM capacity for national emergency preparedness for and response to health emergencies and disease outbreaks with the following details:
• Self-assessment of national core IHR capacities for 2024 is supported, SPAR report is prepared and submitted to WHO.
• Technical group meeting for Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of IHR capacities is supported, self-evaluation IHR capacities using JEE tool is supported, and the report of the self-evaluation IHR capacities is drafted for submission to WHO.
• Preparation/ conduction of JEE for IHR capacities is supported.
• RA/ JRA for disease outbreak events are supported when conducted, with reports prepared and shared with WHO.
• Drafting of WHO EIS for website posting is prepared for disease outbreaks and/or public health events, as required by IHR (2005).
• Monthly progress report is submitted to GDPM and WHO.

Planned timeline:
(Subject to confirmation): 6 months, 1 July - 31 Dec 2023.

Please refer to the attached Call for Proposal for more detailed information. Those who are interested can contact our focal person before/by 13 June 2024
Administrative Officer
World Health Organization
wpvnmapplicants@who.int

Subject: Application for VN#017 (Technical Support Staff under Special Service Agreement (SSA) to support implementation of International Health Regulations (IHR) and Point of Entry related activities (PoEs)